Random beats at Casual MTG decks night

Well, we’re back to school and back to the grind. For some this is the worst time of the year because it signals the start of the boring and mundane for yet another year.  For others it is a time of excitement as things start all over again with fresh beginnings and fresh options.  For those of us who play Magic, the specter of rotation and the imminent arrival of Khans means there is lots of buzz in the air.  The end of September can’t come fast enough!

This isn’t an spoiler article because we are hard at work here at Three Kings Loot prepping our review, but we’ve got good stuff on the burner.  However, with Khans being on the horizon and Constructed being in a bit of holding pattern until the rotation, I thought this would be a perfect chance to highlight some casual decks I’ve been rocking, some relatively inexpensive and fun decks to liven up your Casual games.  These are all 60 card decks that are perfectly viable in a duel situation, but are better suited to playing a multiplayer setting.  Let’s see what I’ve been brewing.

The first deck is my take on what can only be called a Modern Mono-Green Devotion deck.  A number of months ago I posted a decklist for a budget Mono-Green Devotion deck here on Three Kings Loot.  It has done reasonably well for me since then, but decks are like living organisms that change and evolve and this deck is no different.  With cards like Chord of Calling, Genesis Hydra, Hydra Broodmaster there are yet more powerful options to sink a ton of mana, there is no reason not to change a few cards to do a few more powerful things.  However, the addition of a card from an older set is REALLY what I wanted to add to the deck…and that was Craterhoof Behemoth.  This just smacks of being the best thing you can do to dump a ton of mana either by hard casting it, Chord of Calling for it, or Genesis Hydra for about a billion and grabbing it too.  Here’s the list.

Mono-Green Devotion (Budget modern and/or casual MTG decks)

I was rocking this is in a 4 person free-for all game and was in the driver seat.  My opponents had allowed me to resolve a number of creatures, a Voyaging Satyr and a Nykthos.  I had all the tools needed to start going off and just needed some huge mana sinks.  Sure enough, up comes a Polukranos and we’re off to the races.  I cast “Big Polly” and get set to Monstrosity him…but sadly have to target the stupid Biovisionary in the stupid combo deck my pal was playing, a Fleetfeather Cockatrice because I had no flying defence, and some other random creature.  Stupid Cockatrice and the Deathough ability.  Oh well.  I get my turn back and top deck… Hydra Broodmaster! OK! So, cast it, and then set up the Monstrosity…and make 10 10/10 Hydra Tokens! OH YEAH! Let the beat down plan begin.  I start smashing stuff around and just making a wreck of the board.  Then, out of nowhere, my buddy slams a second a Biovisionary, casts Polymorphist Jest, and turns his mana dorks into Biovisionaries…and we all lose.  Damn it! Lesson learned…kill the stupid combo deck…no matter how durdly the combo is.

Next, I shuffled up my Mono-Red Goblins deck.  I have no real expectation that Mono-Red Goblins will fare well in a multi-player game.  They are far too fragile and just not suited to trying to fight a number of opponents.  However, things are going my way.  I land a Foundry Street Denizen, Legion Loyalist, and then…KRENKO! Oh yeah.  A couple of Krenko activations later and I have a ton of goblins, had just smacked one opponent for 20 points of damage and was in good shape to start taking the game over.  Everything changed with one card…Scouring Sands…and wipes out all the Goblin Token…and I get thumped.  Ok…I know Goblins are fragile, but it is a terrible feeling to have your board wiped out by Scouring Sands because NOBODY plays Scouring Sands.  However, I lost to Scouring Sands and I wanted to cry (well, not really).

Mono- Red Goblins (Casual MTG decks)

The last deck today is one that is clearly a Casual build because it is such a silly concept and packs such a ridiculous mana base there is no way to describe it.  Here’s the list and I’ll talk about it afterwards.

UWR Skyfisher (Casual MTG Decks and/or budget Modern)

This deck plays on the interaction between Kor Skyfisher and Spark Trooper.  Most opponents won’t bother to block what amounts to a Ball Lightning because they know that it will be sacrificed at the end of the turn.  Sure, they eat 6 but they are banking on the creature no longer being a threat. However, during your second main phase if you can cast the Kor Skyfisher you can return the Spark Trooper and re-use it.  Once I established that interaction it became a matter of digging up a host of creatures who a) return stuff to my hand to be re-used or b) have good enter the battlefield triggers.  Now, this is a very mana hungry deck so playing it in a duel is suspect, but in a slower multiplayer game it is just perfect.

Well, I shuffled it up and suggested a couple of minor adjustments to our game.  I suggested that we all play at the same time and play with a Howling Mine effect.  The Howling Mine is hardly earth shattering, but the “everyone plays at the same time” is…interesting.  It makes resolving spells really tricky, but boy was it fun! So, we had 1 player eliminated leaving 3 of us still playing. It was a tricky situation but I decided to throw caution to the wind and swing to take out the opponent to my right.  The whole team went and was delivering somewhere up to 35 points of damage…but in the process the opponent to my left hit me.  All the while, the opponent to my right wound up and lashed out with Nefarox with some ridiculous amount of Exalted triggers caving in the guy to my left.  So, all in one turn all three of us just straight up die ending the game in a weird finale. It was a fun variant and something we will do again, but most definitely not the way to play every single time.

All three of these decks would fall into a pretty budget friendly category and highlight how you can make some fun decks with just a pile of funny cards and do some damage at your next Casual Night.  The Mono-Green deck is probably the most pricey of the decks on this list, but the cards on it can totally be substituted for and can revert back to the Budget deck list I had previously.  However, the new twists on it could make for a fun deck because of the powerful things you can do with the crazy amount of mana that can be generated. The UWR Skyfisher deck is pretty unreliable because of the wonky mana base and the fact that half the plays in the deck set you back, but when it works…dear LORD…does it work.  And Goblins…well…they’re Goblins and will always be funny. When they work, they work awesome.  When they fall flat on their face, they fall flat on their face hard.

There we have it, three fun builds, three fun games, and some random feel bad stories about how to lose a game despite being in a dominant position.  I’m not sure what lesson to draw from the last two apart from perhaps playing the politics game a little more, but regardless of the lessons learned it was fun. It was refreshing to sit down and just sling some card board and relax with some friends with nothing on the line.  I’ll have to make a point of playing this way more often just to keep things fresh.

Thanks for reading again this week…and until next time keep it fun, keep it safe…keep it casual.